Kage
by Durbe the Barian
Summary: My power wasn't normal. I wasn't normal. Friendship...Laughter...they weren't for me... Told in the Dark Duelist's POV.


**Arc V Oneshot**

**Kage**

**Angst/Friendship**

**My power wasn't normal. I wasn't normal. Friendship...Laughter...they weren't for me... Told in the Dark Duelist's POV**

**(Let's see...I don't own Yugioh, GX, 5Ds, or Zexal, so what makes you think I own Arc V?)**

* * *

Kage

* * *

I was nothing more than a shadow. A dark presence that lingered near the walls, hiding everything behind my goggles. I was never noticed, never wanted...never liked. Unlike that tomato head that Sawatari accused me of being, I didn't enjoy dueling. I hated it. My power made enjoying such trivial things impossible. The last time I had attempted to duel for thrill, I had almost killed everybody.

So I was alone, with no light to cast my shadow.

But I didn't mind anymore.

That was...how it was meant to be.

* * *

Ever since I was a child, I had been forced to keep a distance from those around me. 'Kage' became my nickname, as nobody noticed my presence unless I myself made it known to them. And it worked. Not a soul noticed me, just as I had wanted. But then...she noticed me.

Yuzu Hiragi.

Where others saw a shadow, she saw me. Where most would have turned away, she took my hand.

Where all gave me animosity, she gave me a smile. She gave me friendship.

The warmth that came from such emotion, I have all but forgotten it now. However, I still have a sliver of that warmth. The warmth she gave to me; it was once like a lantern.

But now it has become nothing more than a slight flicker. But a flicker I have sworn to treasure. If anything, carrying that warmth with me – that painful, heart wrenching warmth – is my apology to her.

My apology for hurting her to the point where she could no longer remember my face.

* * *

I can still remember the day it had happened.

I had grown to be rather lax when around her, even reaching the point where I risked smiling. Both she and her father had helped teach me to duel, though I had kept the fact that I could Xyz Summon to myself. Had I told them, they most likely would have asked me to explain how I knew something like that.

I began to duel like nothing I had ever felt before. Rather than feeling constricted because I had to stay in control of my 'gift,' I was elated. The feel of the Action Duel, the wing blowing against my face; I can remember few times when I felt that way.

But it was because of that happiness, that ecstasy that I felt while dueling her...that I hurt her.

* * *

I was coughing up a dreadful storm, the area around me becoming absolutely suffocating. I could scarcely breathe without my lungs filling with smoke. "Wh-What happened?" I heard someone ask.

It was Shuzou Hiragi. I knew his voice anywhere.

I forced my weak arms to lift me from the ground, though I was fortunate to have any success at all; my arms felt so weak. Almost as if they had been replaced with rubber. My eyes darted from one side of the room to the next.

Only destruction for as far as the eye could see.

"What's going on?" I thought to myself fearfully. "We weren't playing an Action Duel."

I finally managed to stand up again, the air around me beginning to clear. "Y-Yuzu-san!" I called, coughing again due to overworking my voice box. Whatever had happened during the duel had left me hoarse.

"K-Kage-kun..."

That was Yuzu. There was no doubt in my mind about that.

I forced my legs to move me to where I'd heard the voice.

But when I found her...I felt my blood go cold.

She wasn't hurt or anything, but her body was limp. I gently lifted her up, her skin being cold to the touch.

I cringed at the feeling.

"Yuzu-san," I said. "Are you alright?"

I received no answer from her, something that worried beyond anything I had ever felt before.

"Yuzu-san," I said again. "Yuzu-san!"

"Yuzu! Kage!"

That time, it was the founder of the school.

Uncle Yusho.

"O-Over here!" I called, my vision slowly getting covered in black spots.

I remembered them finding us quickly after that moments before I blacked out.

* * *

I recovered in the hospital for a few days after that, but I refused visitors.

The memory of what had happened in that duel slowly returned to me.

My 'gift' had gone out of my control.

The ability to bring a monster out into the real world, something that many people before me demonstrated before.

An ability that cannot be controlled by anybody, a fact I had to learn the hard way.

I didn't want anybody else to suffer because of me again, so I left that hospital before I had fully recovered.

I left.

And I never looked back.

Friendship, like what she offered me... Laughter, like we had shared together...that was not for me.

* * *

**D.T.B: How many others besides me thought The Dark Duelist looked awesome? [raises hand] How many people think Yuya is hilarious? [Raises hand again] How many people are going to let me know how I did in a review? [crickets.]**


End file.
